The Ways Of The People: eBook

A Reader in Missionary Anthropology

Alan Tippett’s publications played a significant role in the development of missiology. The volumes in this series augment his distinguished reputation by bringing to light his many unpublished materials and hard-to-locate printed articles. These books— encompassing theology, anthropology, history, area studies, religion, and ethnohistory— broaden the contours of the discipline.

Missionaries and anthropologists have a tenuous relationship. While often critical of missionaries, anthropologists are indebted to missionaries for linguistic and cultural data as well as hospitality and introductions into the local community. In The Ways of the People, Alan Tippett provides a critical history of missionary anthropology and brings together a superb reader of seminal anthropological contributions from missionaries Edwin Smith, R. H. Codrington, Lorimer Fison, Diedrich Westermann, Henri Junod, and many more.

Twenty years as a missionary in Fiji, following pastoral ministry in Australia and graduate degrees in history and anthropology, provide the rich data base that made Alan R. Tippett a leading missiologist of the twentieth century. Tippett served as Professor of Anthropology and Oceanic Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary.